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loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Monday, October 29, 2007

aztec cat stats

I'm busy. But I found something I had, HAD to post, courtesy of the great oddball site Infowisps.

Although the veneration of cats is more associated with Ancient Egypt, catswere also symbolically important to the tlatoani - the Aztec rulers of thepre-Hispanic era. Chimalpopoca (died 1427) ordered his scribes to record thelives and deaths of some 300 pet cats, all of which were named after localflowers and plants. The most common cause of feline death is given as 'fatigue'(131 cats), while some of the more unusual reasons for visiting the dirtbox inthe sky include the following: 'collapsed while praying' (8 cats), 'jumped froma boat' (3), 'struck down by wildfire' (3), 'rolled into the unknown', 'atericaqli pods till burst' and 'pecked by the oracle's geese' (one each).